I saw an image on Missed Connections few days ago, and the image text is:
Friday, January 29, 2010 - m4w - 23 (L train)
How did you get those bruises? I wouldn't let anything happen to you. You were reading some book, and taking notes. I read a book once.
And I saw people comment below that the last sentence "I read a book once" is really sad... but I don't quite understand the hidden meaning of that sentence.
Thanks for your help.
The writer of the "missed connection" note is grasping at straws (<- useful English expression) to create some kind of connection to the person whom he encountered on the L train. He knows nothing about her other than that she was reading a book and had some bruises. "I read a book once" is a clumsy, funny way of saying, "Hey, I have something in common with you! You obviously read books, because I saw you reading. And you know what? Some time in my past, amazingly, I also read a book! (So that's enough for you to contact me and maybe we can go on a date.)"
It’s saying the speaker has only read one book ever.
This is a reference to a classic joke; I could have sworn that I remembered it from a Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Carver novel, but I may have invented that memory. The oldest version I can find is in a British TV sitcom called Porridge (slang for "prison", where the show is set.):
Heslop: I read a book once. Green, it was.
The joke is that there's an expected meaning: "once upon a time, I read a book; I have presumably read many others" - but it's immediately contradicted by an unexpected meaning: "I've only ever read one book, and it was green." The second meaning is obviously not true - I don't think it's actually possible for a person to read exactly one book in his life - but it would certainly be sad if it were true.
Edit: I remembered where I'd first heard this joke: Jimmy Durante's 1947 song The Day I Read a Book. Very funny!
When you say, "I did X once", that can mean, "I did X at some time in the past", or "I did X exactly one time."
The phrase is often used in the first sense to introduce a subject. Like, "I went to Chicago once," followed by an account of what you did there. In that case it doesn't necessarily mean that you only did it one time. You are just bringing up one particular time that you did it.
It's a fairly common joke to say, "I did X once" as if you were about to use it in the first sense and go on to describe a particular incident, and then just stop, thus converting the meaning into the second sense, I did this only one time. Or sometimes make some comment following up on the idea of it being only once. If it's an activity that people would expect you to do more than one time, this might potentially be funny if the line is delivered well. "I went to work once. I decided I didn't like it." Etc.
I believe the correct context is "I read a book once UPON A TIME." (not one time)
Thank you very much for giving us a link so we have some context to answer your question.
I think some of the people posting comments on that site were sad about the girl in the image having bruises (presumably because of abuse). And I think that "I read a book once." means that the guy, whose thoughts/words these are, is admitting that he's not much of a reader, especially compared with her studiously taking notes on a book she's reading. I would guess that he's probably understating his history of reading to make a point. At least one commenter stated specifically that she found the fact that he had perhaps read only one book in his life sad. (I find that sad too. But not as sad as a girl suffering abuse.)
